Filling a medical prescription typically requires taking a physical copy of the prescription to the pharmacy, waiting for a period of time for the prescription to be filled, and then physically picking up the prescription. The waiting time can depend on a number of factors including whether the prescribed medication is in stock, the number of other prescriptions that the pharmacy must fill, and the capacity of the pharmacy to fill those prescriptions. In some instances, with known systems, medical prescriptions may be sent digitally with limited patient choice and engagement. In some of these instances, pharmacies will not prepare the medication in advance because the patient may never pick-up the prescription.
While the pharmacy may have information internally regarding its inventory and prescription filling capacity, that information is typically not accessible outside a specific pharmacy location or chain of pharmacies. There are also limited processes for communicating this information to customers in advance to allow them to plan around the wait time. Known techniques for communicating information are not suitable for medical prescriptions because they do not allow the customer to efficiently search for a desirable pharmacy among a plurality of available pharmacies, and to direct the prescription to the pharmacy with desired characteristics such as geographical proximity and suitable operating hours. In other words, known techniques and systems do not allow for a solution that is tailored to the customer's needs and the pharmacy's capabilities, including the pharmacy's IT capability, to fulfill those needs. In addition, known techniques do not allow for easy storage and tracking of communications between the customer and the pharmacy, and as such do not facilitate providing continuing and actively-monitored care to the customer.